For a Great Cause, Plus Prizes!

An amazing woman, Janice (obstiknit to fellow Ravelers), is going to be walking in the Philadelphia 3-day walk for breast cancer, October 16-18! She is trying to raise funds for research and is offering a chance at some incredible yarny prizes for those who donate to this worthy cause. So far there are a few skeins of Wollmeise, a signed book by Wendy Johnson and a Namaste Jetsetter bag!

Please take a few minutes to check out Janice's informational blog, The Delaware Tata Savers, for all the details about how to donate to a very worthy cause and the possibility to win some nice stash enhancement.

Cross-stitch

Long ago in a distant galaxy ....Okay, Last March 2008, one of my sisters-in-law requested that I make her an afghan for her birthday, in April. Yeah, you heard me, APRIL, I had less than a month. She wanted a very specific type of afghan, Tunisian crochet with cross-stitched moose and tree motifs. Oh, and did I forget to mention that she wanted it to be king-sized! Needless to say that even with my best efforts, it was no where near ready for her birthday last year. The 3 panels of the afghan base were completed about a month after her birthday and, may I add, my wrists and shoulders were throbbing.

Looking at those afghan panels and the many hours worth of cross-stitch that lay ahead of me became the bane of my life. It mocked me. I would stack finished items on top of the project so that I didn't have to face the fact that I really needed to get back to work on it before her next birthday...sigh...which is now quickly approaching.

I picked the afghan back up this week and I have started to work exclusively on the cross-stitch for this afghan. Every time I am tempted to work on anything else, I mentally slap my self around and wag my finger in my face, then get down to business working on this never ending project from hell.

While my fingers worked the tidy little stitches across the crocheted grid, I asked myself, "Why do I hate doing this so much?". It turns out there are a few reasons.

• I had to design this afghan myself, since I couldn't find a pattern that encompassed all that she requested. Unfortunately, I am not confidant that what I have tried to come up with will pass muster. So, it appears that fear of failure, and the possible rejection of my work have stopped me in my tracks. This issue has come up so many times in my life.
• Pain. This is a huge, and very heavy project to work on and I experience a lot of pain and discomfort in just supporting it with my hands, wrists and shoulders. Of course, if I had worked on it a little bit at a time throughout this past year, instead of waiting until it is almost time for her birthday again, I may have been able to mitigate much of that pain. Now I must endure long, painful sessions working on it if I am to complete it in time for this April.
  
• Lastly, I get annoyed with the fact that I have to re-thread this damn needle every 10 minutes or so. When I knit or crochet I use a continuous fiber that only needs to have a new end attached when I come to the end of a skein. With this cross-stitch project, I am working with 24 inch lengths of yarn that last me 10 minutes or less. But in all honesty, this is just a mere annoyance and the first 2 reasons are much more relevant.

Well, I wish I could take the time to expound on this topic, but I am mentally wagging my finger in my face right now, because I really should be working on my SIL's afghan. Slap! Ouch...okay, I'm going!

An Oops and a Finished Project..

I fell off the wagon, again. It had been several months since I last purchased yarn, and I had pledged to work only from my stash until I cut it down to an amount that would fit in my new book shelves of the previous post. Wel-l-l-l-l-llll, I only ordered one skein of sock yarn and everyone says that sock yarn doesn't count as stash (unfortunately, it still costs money).

So what yarn was so irresistible to me? Well, I ordered it from Loribird (Ravelry and Plurk ID) at The Wool Room and it is incredibly soft. The colors are just as beautiful in real life as the picture. I am thinking that it will become a pair of fingerless mitts, if I can stop petting it long enough to take my needles to it. I advise everyone to rush to The Wool Room and buy up the lovely, squishy yarn and vivid, gorgeous rovings! I have a finished object to share with you all, as well. It is my Just Add Needles Toe-up Socks for the Knitting Purls Toe-up KAL, knit in STR light-weight in the January One colorway. They are for my size 12, sasquatch feet and they are only anklets because I don't wear socks that could be restrictive on the lymphedema of my legs.
That is all for now. I will try to post again soon!

A Frogging I Will Go

Last weekend my beautiful sister and her handy hubby came over to assemble my shelving units for my stash and my craft library. They did an awesome job and I am very grateful! Not all of my stash fits in the shelves, but my apartment is too small for that many shelves!After the first unit was up, my sister started to unpack some of the bins and boxes that my stash was stored in. Amid everything she found the parts to the 2nd sweater I had ever tried to make. It was beyond my capabilities when I started it, and it quickly became a UFO. I told her that I was going to frog it, but upon inspection it became evident that all the pieces were there, just waiting to be assembled.

I decided to put this together and started the seaming, as much as I loath the process. Once I had a sleeve set in I held it up for inspection and both Ray and I started laughing instantly. This was going to be the most ridiculous looking sweater ever and would require a contortionist to wear it. I started frogging instantly. There is no way I am giving up the yummy yarn that this was knit in. I just wish that I could remember what it is. The ball band has long ago been lost, but this wool feels wonderful and I will reincarnate it as something wonderful now that I am no longer a novice knitter.

I have completed a little knitting. Surprise! I have completed 2 projects for Knitting Purls Stash Busting Colorwork KAL. The first is the Beginners Fair Isle by Catherine Kerth. I used left over acrylic from a couple of kids projects. I really like the effect of using a variegated yarn gave to the fair isle stitches. The 2nd project is the Ankara Headband designed by Nanette Blanchard. This was a little more challenging for me in chart reading and stranding technique. I am taking baby steps in learning fair isle. (Obviously, I haven't blocked either piece before taking photos. Sorry.)I am still working on the toe-up ankle socks for the toe-up KAL and I hope to finish those soon. My next fair isle project is going to be a pair of socks too, but I am not sharing what that one is just yet. Stay tuned in for more!

I'd like to thank the academy......huh?

I feel so honored and surprised to let you know that a very talented blogger has nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award! My gracious nominator is none other than Lunaticraft! I want to thank her and honor the spirit of the award by nominating other blogs that I really enjoy.

So now it's my turn.

Here are the rules for the nominees:

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 8 other bloggers.
4. Link to those on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

The following are my nominees:

1. Dips in the Road of Creativity
2. Trish Knits
3. Mingling Yarn
4. Adventures in Crochet
5. Laugh.Love.Knit
6. Monster Crochet
7. Come to Silver
8. Short-N-Crafty Sista